The drought situation "is worsening": "in some areas it hasn't rained for 110 days" and in dozens of municipalities in Piedmont and Lombardy "tankers for water supply are already in action because the local reservoirs are connected to springs that they do not exist anymore".
So to ANSA Meuccio Berselli, general secretary of the Po River District Authority - Ministry of Ecological Transition (AdPo-MiTe), after the alarm already raised in recent days by the Observatory on drought, which will meet again on Tuesday 21 June.
ANSA agency
Drought emergency, Po Observatory: 'A crisis never seen in 70 years' - Emilia-Romagna
'High water requirement but low availability'.
- DROUGHT ALARM FOR LAKES AND RIVERS (ANSA)
Last week Utilitalia, representing the multi-utilities of the integrated water service, had pointed out that it had asked the mayors of a hundred municipalities in Piedmont and 25 in Lombardy (in the Bergamo area) to suspend water at night, to replenish the levels of the tanks .
Well, in many of these the ordinances are already there, Berselli underlines: "the rationing of water for drinking water is already there".
Another front that is worrying is the Ferrara area and, to a lesser extent, Romagna.
"In the Ferrara area, a basin of about 250 thousand people, we asked to take as little water as possible".
About 300 thousand are the people who instead belong to the purifiers of Romagna, "at the moment more fortunate because the water comes from the Ridracoli dam which has stored good supplies in autumn"
There is already rationing in agriculture, a sector that has "exploded", he adds, "where we ask to withdraw less than they need, to allow a minimum vital outflow of water", despite this being the period in which there would be greater need water to ripen crops.
ANSA agency
Glaciers, in Trentino half the snow compared to the average - Trentino AA / S
On the glaciers of Trentino, a quantity of snow between 50% and 60% of the average value of the historical series was measured and, at the end of May, several glacial fronts were already without snow cover, about a month in advance. ... (ANSA)
We are in a "perfect storm, a year like this has never been seen before": "the snow on the Alps has completely disappeared, glaciers in exhaustion, temperatures higher than average, scarce rains, hot ventilation that dries the soils ...".
"The Po - concludes Berselli - had not had such a low flow rate for 70 years, but the truth is that we will see it even lower".
